Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, recently shared his observations on the vastly different eating habits between India and Singapore. Following his visit to Singapore on February 18, Mr Kamath highlighted the striking absence of home cooking in the country. He noted that many Singaporeans either lack kitchen facilities or never cook at home, sparking an interesting discussion about cultural variations in food consumption habits. In comparison, Indians tend to heavily prioritise home-cooked meals ("ghar ka khana") with significantly lower consumption of restaurant food.
This led him to wonder if India might also adopt this trend in the future, especially if economic conditions change. Mr Kamath noted that if India were to follow Singapore's food habits, the restaurant business would experience exponential growth. However, he pointed out that India lacks large-scale restaurant brands comparable to those in Southeast Asia. He also questioned why India's food service industry trails behind in terms of organized restaurants, highlighting that only 30% of India's food market is organized, whereas in the United States, this figure stands at 55%.
"I was in Singapore this week; most I met said they never cook at home, and others don't have a kitchen. If India were to follow this trend, investing/opening restaurants would be a massive opportunity, but we don't have restaurant brands that have close to the scale Southeast Asian chains do. What's different in our consumption behaviour? And will this change say when GDP per capita crosses 5k USD, and labour costs increase?", he wrote in a tweet.
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He further highlighted a significant disparity in India's consumption of non-home-cooked meals compared to other countries through data. The data revealed that in 2023, China led the pack with an average of 33 non-home-cooked meals per customer, followed closely by the US at 27.
Singapore and South Korea trailed behind at 19 and 14, respectively. In stark contrast, India averaged a mere 5 non-home-cooked meals per customer, underscoring a substantial gap in the country's food consumption habits.
Mr Kamath's post quickly went viral, generating a diverse array of responses from his followers, who weighed in with their thoughts on India's food consumption habits. One user wrote, "Why should we even endeavour to encourage hawker or restaurant-cooked food over home-cooked meals regularly? India has a great "cook at home" culture and I pray that it stays that way. Every nutritionist and doctor knows that fresh, hygienic, home-cooked meals are good for health."
Another commented, "Not a restaurateur, but Indian food in restaurants is not healthy. It has way more oil, it is way more fried, and way more spicy than most home food is. It is impossible to eat Indian food out every day, but one could easily eat, say, Vietnamese food out daily."
A third said, "Singapore is a bit different in this because of various reasons but not because of restaurant brands. They have a lot of hawker centres with cheap, yet hygienic, food. Public transport and walkability is great so they can easily eat (or pick up) on the way home."
A fourth added, "Quality food and making it affordable would be the biggest challenge! Beyond restaurant owners, we need government, food corporations, and other support and guidelines. Prioritize quality control. Once owners pass on all costs to customers, it will not be affordable! That's reality."
